


Who I'm Meant To Be

by EmptyHead



Series: Extracurricular Activities [3]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 09:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17978741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmptyHead/pseuds/EmptyHead
Summary: There's a quiet, lingering thought in the back of her mind.  It haunts her, whispers to her that she could do more and that maybe she could make a difference.  Normally she'd just ignore it because she's not crazy and likes being alive, but Michelle believes that she must have lost her sanity long ago because she's starting to listen.  She thinks it might be right.After recovering from an attack, Michelle Jones makes her stand to protect the other sorcerers.Part 3 of my AU in which Michelle Jones stumbles into learning the Mystic Arts.  Set between Homecoming and Infinity War.





	Who I'm Meant To Be

_I think I want to protect my friends_

Michelle Jones had said those words to herself the night that she helped stop a robbery at Delmar's with Peter by using the Mystic Arts. The next morning, she regretted ever having the thought. The phrase haunted her and followed her everywhere she went. The exact wording would vary a little depending on the current circumstances, but the idea was simple.

_I could do more._

But “doing more” as a sorceress means actively getting involved in that Big Scary Thing she's been trying to avoid. Fighting bad guys is this idea that's just too big and too terrifying for someone like her. But no matter how scary it is, the thought just won't leave her alone. The worst part is that it's right. She really can do more and she knows it because she already did it once back at Delmar's.

This internal war she has in her mind leaves her frustrated so she starts getting more involved in regular sparring practices with Strange or even going to Kamar-Taj before bed to join their morning sessions if she can swing it in her schedule. After the first time she does one of these sessions with Strange, she came home and screamed herself hoarse when she realized that her idea to vent frustrations was to train herself for magical combat. Still, she kept going because it keeps both sides of her happy. Her normal and sane side is happy because she's practicing magic and she still thinks it's fun, but her new illogical and insane side is happy because she's getting stronger.

It's been roughly 4 months since then and it's currently the middle of December. Finals week for the current school semester starts tomorrow. Christmas is in the middle of the following week. Right now she's in the Sanctum again for another session.

“You've said that you need to study for your classes so today we won't do anything tiring. First though, have you been working on your shields?” Strange asks Michelle. Michelle nods her head. Learning how to create shields was pretty crazy. When she casts the spell to make it, large orange shields of light appear on her arms and she feels like Captain America.

“Show me,” Strange commands as he creates a magical sword (and man, Michelle wonders how the hell that even works).

After screwing it up once, she successfully creates the shields and Strange slashes his sword at her. Michelle moves her left arm up to block it and the blade is deflected harmlessly.

In order to avoid accidentally damaging the Sanctum, Strange began holding sessions in the Mirror Dimension. He explained it as a plane of existence that's layered directly on top of the physical realm in a way that you can see the real world, but can't actually interact with it. Like a one-way mirror. Because things in the Mirror Dimension can't affect the real world, sorcerers do more... destructive training in there. It's a little trippy of a place. It's like she's in the Sanctum, but there's random bits of cracked glass in the air scattered around.

“Good, good,” he says as he dispels his weapon and she does the same. “Today I want to talk about relics. Relics are objects imbued with magical power. They are typically sentient on some level, although just how much varies. You've already met, but one relic is the Cloak of Levitation.” Strange's cloak then makes a little show of coming off and flying around him in a circle. It's kind of cute. Michelle has seen the cloak flying around the Sanctum before, but she never really addressed it because well, that's kinda weird. She's not so far gone that she's going to start talking to objects.

Something about what he said though draws out her curiosity, “You said that they are imbued with magical energy. Does that mean I could create my own relics?”

The man nods, satisfied with her understanding. “Yes. I should say that doing so requires a lot more energy than you would expect. More powerful relics were created under... unnatural circumstances.”

“Do you have any material I can read to learn about how to do that?” This gives Michelle an idea.

Heading over to a nearby bookshelf, he picks one out and hands it over to her. “I should warn you that this is fairly advanced material.”

She shrugs as she takes it from him, “What's the worst that could happen?

“Reality itself could tear apart.” he replies matter of factly.

That brings her up short. “Well, I wasn't planning on going quite that far.”

 

 

 

Peter doesn't like to admit it for fear of sounding vain, but he loves Spider-Man merchandise. There's a secret stash in his closet of shirts based on him that he'll never wear and only has for the sake of collecting them. Michelle had been thinking about getting him something similar for Christmas, but due the growing popularity of the stuff it has been getting a little expensive which can be hard for a high school student without a job. To her surprise however, she recently saw a surprisingly nice and high quality Spider-Man themed metal bracelet within her price range (though at the upper end of it). It wasn't gaudy and frankly you probably wouldn't know it was based on the superhero unless you were intentionally looking closely at it. So she buys it.

Michelle's idea is simple. Her boyfriend would probably get a kick out of anything magical so she'll try and put a minor enchantment of sorts on the bracelet and give it to him for Christmas. After getting started on researching how to create magical relics however, she finds that she's way in over her head. The material in the book is so far advanced that she wonders if she would be able to do it at all within the next several years. Honestly, she can barely make sense of what it's even talking about. The smallest of spells to place on an item still seems to require massive amounts of power and appears to have to be completed over several independent sessions or days.

It doesn't look likely at all that she will be able to successfully pull this off, but figures there's no harm in trying. By the next day she has found a minor protection spell that she thinks she might be able to do. Michelle still can't make sense of a lot of the guidelines and procedures for it, but thinks she has a general idea. The enchantment would mainly be a one-off deal that wouldn't save him from more than a single bullet, but she'll take that.

So she takes some time each night of finals week before bed to work on it.

 

 

 

“I don't think I ever asked. Am I supposed to call you a witch now?” Ned asks between bites of his lunch.

Michelle Jones considers the question for a moment. “Nope. The proper term is 'sorceress'. 'Witch' has a lot of negative connotations. Old, decrepit, evil women. That's not me.”

“Well, sometimes it is,” Ned mutters under his breath.

“Just because I've assigned you extra practice questions for Decathlon, it doesn't make me evil.”

He flails his arms around, “But I'm the only one you gave them to! You're just getting revenge for when I walked in on you and Peter making out. This is abuse of power!”

“A well deserved punishment,” she replies seriously and nods to herself.

Peter coughs awkwardly, “Anyway...”

It's Friday now and school has let out early after everyone finishes their last final exam. To celebrate, Peter, Ned, and Michelle head out for lunch together. Things have been mostly going well between Peter and herself. One of the biggest challenges the two of them faced was their schedules. Considering how much time Peter spends out on patrol and Michelle spends over at the Sanctum or otherwise researching/practicing, it was hard to find time to meet up. Eventually they worked it out, but it required each of them to take on a more consistent schedule so that they could be free at the same time.

The other biggest hurdle was one that they had already dealt with on their first date. Things finally stopped being awkward and Michelle realized that she doesn't really care about an official “date”. She just wants to spend time with her boyfriend in whatever capacity. Sometimes that's hanging out on the weekend or sometimes it's just talking on the phone while he's out on patrol. Honestly, her biggest worry about their relationship actually has nothing to do with Peter. She's mostly worried about making Ned feel like a third wheel. Ned had once admitted to wanting to ask out Betty Brant which took her by surprise, but makes total sense in retrospect. She's been doing her best to encourage it in her own way, but not much has happened.

“We're still on for meeting up Christmas afternoon, right?” Michelle asks. “My parents are coming back into town on Monday so I'm not sure what my schedule will look like for most of next week,”

“Yeah,” Ned answers, “you guys were coming over to my place.”

She finds herself oddly looking forward to spending a good chunk of Christmas with her friends. It's a nice change of pace. They spend some time comparing the different questions and answers they had in the classes they shared and overall end up feeling pretty well about how they did. They won't know their true grade for a few days, but she's optimistic. When they finish the meal, they make plans to meet up again the next day and Peter sneaks in a kiss which leaves her flustered in front of Ned. Ned just stands there and makes gagging noises.

Sometimes she hates her friends.

 

 

 

Returning home from lunch, Michelle drops her bag by the door and heads over to the kitchen to start thinking about what to do for dinner later. In theory she could just conjure up some basic food, but it would get boring eating plain bread over and over. Plus, she doesn't mind cooking.

“Michelle Jones.”

There is a man in her apartment.

Feeling her blood turn to ice, Michelle looks to the side and sees a cloaked figure standing in the middle of the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. Despite the close proximity, she still can't make out any facial features due to the large hood shadowing them. There's a staff tied to his back. How did he get in? Forcing down her panic, she starts reviewing options. Her sling ring and phone are in the bag on the floor, but she has a miniature sized can of pepper spray in her pocket that she's had since freshman year. Every instinct in her body screams at her to run.

The man begins taking steps towards her and Michelle has seen enough. She reaches over to grab her bag and bolts out the door, but she can hear him chasing not too far behind her. Her apartment is up 5 flights of stairs and thankfully there's no one in the hall. She considers screaming for help for a moment, but decides against it since she has no idea how dangerous this guy is. As she rounds a corner to get to the stairs, she feels her right leg sweep out from underneath her and she falls to the floor. Looking back, she sees that he's caught her with an eldritch whip and he begins to pull her in. She tries fighting against it with her own power, but he's _so strong_. Stronger than anyone she can ever remember practicing against.

Now directly underneath him, she can vaguely make out his dark skin, but nothing else. As the man reaches out to grab her, she pulls out the pepper spray and unleashes it on his face. It has the desired effect. The man releases his magical hold on her and grabs his face in agony. Taking the opportunity, she quickly gets up and flees down the stairs. The noise is drawing attention and she can hear doors opening and people shouting upstairs.

As she makes it to the second floor, she hears a noise and looks up. The cloaked man is dropping down the center shaft of the staircase and when he gets to her floor, he somehow slows down and a small orange glyph appears that he lands on and then uses it to jump over the railing next to her. He pulls the staff off his back and stretches it apart into segments that are held together by magical energy. Michelle hopes no one can see, but she's out of options as she quickly creates a shield to defend herself. This draws a borderline insane smile from the man, "Impressive! How skilled for one so young!" He lashes out with the staff and Michelle moves to block it. The sheer force of the impact instantly shatters the barrier and sends her flying into a wall, then tumbling down the stairs to the first floor.

Badly disoriented and hurt, she scrambles to the door and crawls outside. Now in full view of people from the sidewalk and nearby cars, she looks back and sees that he seems to have stopped chasing. In fact he seems to be completely gone. Climbing to her feet, Michelle limps to an alley out of sight while trying to avoid thinking about the blood dripping down her head or if any bones are broken. After digging out her sling ring, she makes a portal to the Sanctum. Once inside she sees Dr. Strange idly walking around while reading a spellbook. He looks over to her, surprised at her appearance and roughed up state.

Michelle takes a moment to calm down her racing heart and catch her breath. “Uh, hi.”

 

 

 

It's a good thing that Stephen Strange is an actual doctor. He's able to help her get cleaned up and checks her over to make sure she's okay. Amazingly nothing is broken, but she'll probably have some pains on her arms and legs for a couple days.

With the immediate danger gone, she calls Peter. “Hey MJ!” he greets with more cheer than she could possibly muster right now. There's a lot of rushing wind in the background so he must be out as Spider-Man right now.

There's no way around it so she drops the news, “So, someone just tried to kill me.”

The call goes utterly silent for a long time and she starts to think the call dropped. “Please tell me I didn't hear what I thought I did,” he says in a deathly serious tone. She'd never heard him get like that before.

“I wish I could. I'm at the Sanctum right now and Strange is patching me up a little. I'm not sure what to do right now,” she admits. She's actually feeling pretty scared, but she needs to be strong right now. If she can fake it for a while, she can have her breakdown later.

“You're hurt!? MJ please, no, I'm on the way.” he gets out quickly. There's a noise of his webshooters going off so he must already be swinging his way over.

“I need a favor. That computer in your suit can check police scanners right? Did anyone report it?” If the police start getting involved, this could get complicated. Her parents would find out-

Oh god, her parents. They're going to be coming home in a few days and the apartment clearly isn't safe anymore.

“No, I would have heard about it and come to help. Let me double check,” the phone goes quiet for a moment. “No reports according to Karen.”

“Okay, okay,” Michelle replies with a shaky breath. This removes one potential huge headache, but it also raises some concerns about her neighbors.

“I'm on my way MJ. I'll be there in a couple minutes”

 

 

 

Peter practically barges inside in full Spider-Man suit. It takes him a minute to find Strange and Michelle, but the second he sees her he races over as he tugs off his mask and pulls her into a hug. “Oh my god, MJ! Are you alright!?”

He's squeezing kind of hard and she still hurts all over so she does her best to gently push him off. “I'm okay. I hurt a lot though, so please not so hard.”

He breaks the hug, but before Peter can apologize, Strange cuts in, “Now that he's here, I was hoping you could explain what happened.”

Michelle does her best to explain the attack in detail. The man didn't say anything other than her name and she didn't get a good look at him. Certain parts of her tale jump out to Strange however.

He looks troubled, “You said it was a sorcerer that had a staff and could land on the air?” When she nods in confirmation, his frown only gets deeper. “I need to investigate. I'll get back to you.” And with that he creates a portal and leaves before either of them can say a word.

The two of them simply look at each other confused as to what that was all about. “Can I crash at your place? I don't think it's safe for me to go home,” Michelle asks.

Peter rapidly nods his head, “Yeah. I was going to try and convince you to anyway. I'm sure it'll be fine with May. I guess let's get going.”

She's not remotely in a position to walk all the way home. “Is your aunt home? Can I just make a portal there?” she queries.

“Yeah, she's home. Sorry MJ.”

Oh well. She's been meaning to tell May about her abilities eventually. Putting her sling ring back on, she makes a portal into the Parker apartment. Immediately on the other side, less than 10 feet from them, is May Parker staring right back at them

Peter waves awkwardly, “Hi Aunt May.”

“Not this again.” she groans out. “All right, what the hell is going on?”

Michelle is basically limping and it hurts to walk so Peter helps her through the portal. “Hi May,” she greets before realizing that she kind of has to explain the fact that there is a magical portal in the middle of the apartment. “I can cast magic spells and made a portal here.”

May stares her right in the eye, “You're serious.”

“Yep. I've been doing this for a while now.”

The other woman closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. A moment later she sighs and opens her eyes with the most pure and blatant display of utter disappointment that she's ever seen.

Peter, bless his heart, makes it worse. “MJ needs to stay here for a little bit because there's someone trying to kill her and I need to stay with her. Do you mind if she stays here for the weekend?”

Michelle didn't think it was possible, but May's disappointment is so powerful that it feels like it's going to swallow her whole. Eventually she relents, “Fine. Get her lying down in your bed. It looks like she's hurt. You and I are not done talking about this.”

Peter helps her into bed and she almost instantly dozes off. Before she does though, she can hear Peter and May quietly arguing through the door. It's too soft to make out the words, but it makes her heart clench that she's coming between the two of them like this. May is wonderful to her nephew and that's not something she wants to ruin.

 

 

 

Michelle wakes up to some shouting from the kitchen. “Peter, I don't have anything to cook dinner with. Can you go get some carryout for us?” May called out. There's a noise of various drawers and cabinets opening and closing.

Opening her eyes, Michelle sees Peter is still with her in his bedroom. He's over at his desk working on homework from what she can tell. She sits up, but her body still aches and the movement draws Peter's attention with a concerned look as he answers May, “I don't think it's a good idea for me to go out right now. It might not be safe since this guy is still looking for MJ.”

Michelle has been wanting to talk to May alone and this would be a good excuse to send him away without seeming suspicious. “I'll be fine. You'll probably only be gone for 30 minutes or so anyway,” she says.

He looks like he wants to argue for a moment, but Peter gives in and raises his hands in surrender and says, “All right, I know a losing battle when I see one”. He heads out of the bedroom to speak with May in hushed tone so that she can't tell what they're saying and then leaves the apartment after another minute.

Her limbs highly disagree with the action, but Michelle gets out of bed and slowly walks out to the kitchen where she can see May staring out a window, seemingly lost in thought. Michelle has been thinking about that disappointed look in May's eyes when first telling her about her abilities through the Mystic Arts. The implication is pretty clear: May Parker doesn't approve of her anymore. The thought of losing her support for her relationship with Peter hurts. It really does, which is why she needs to talk to her about it. The girl cuts to the real issue, “You don't approve of the things I can do.”

Michelle's voice knocks May out of her daydream and the older woman looks over to her while shaking her head sadly, “I don't think this is a conversation we should have MJ.” A breath, “I don't have any tea right now. Do you want anything to drink?”

“You're important to Peter so your opinion is important to me. Even if it's not something I'm going to like,” Michelle makes her stance known. She doesn't want to hide who she is, but she also wants to try and show that she's still the same person she's always been. “I don't need anything to drink. Can you just hand me an empty cup?”

Confused, May grabs one from a nearby cabinet, hands it to her, and then they both take a seat at the table. To May's surprise, the girl puts a hand on the cup and it begins to fill with hot tea out of absolutely nothing. “What?” she coughs out in shock. “Is that drinkable?”

“It's as drinkable as anything I could make normally,” Michelle answers while shrugging before asking, “Do you want some?”

“No, no. I'm more of a coffee person,” May responds, still baffled, and fills her own cup from a pot on the table. “God, this is so crazy. World gets weirder every year,” she trails off muttering. The two of them drink in silence, but it's tense with the obvious topic hanging over their heads. Getting some fresh liquid in her has Michelle feeling much better and she can practically feel the aches slipping away. With any luck she'll be fine by tomorrow.

“You should hear the way Peter talks about you. I wonder if he realizes that nearly every third word out of his mouth is 'MJ this' or 'MJ that'. I was so happy for him that he found someone like you,” May eventually begins. “I'm proud of my nephew and the things he does, but I worry that he's going to get too big or try and take on too much responsibility so I encourage him to help me with charity events or fundraisers. Spider-Man's presence does wonders and it helps him build roots here. If I can keep him grounded in the city, then he'll be less likely to go off and do something extremely dangerous. That's what I was hoping for his relationship with a normal girl like you - that it would keep him grounded. Now I find out that not only are you as far from normal as possible, but you've got your own share of danger following you around that my nephew won't hesitate to put himself in front of.” May sighs, “I'm not upset. I just...”. She puts her hands up and shrugs with a helpless gesture.

“You just wish I was normal,” Michelle finishes for her while May nods and looks away, feeling a little ashamed of the admission. It surprises the girl how little the comment about not being normal stings. Months ago, during the summer, she hid herself away from the world due to the fear of being different. These days she can't imagine her life any other way. Being a sorceress is simply who she is now and she doesn't want to go back to normality.

She understands May's concerns. While it's not exactly her fault, she's indirectly putting Peter in danger simply because he will refuse to let this go. He won't stop wanting to protect her and that's part of why she adores him so much. Telling him to stop would just go against his nature. For the first time, Michelle wonders if dating Peter was a good idea at all if it's going to potentially get him hurt. She smothers that train of thought with extreme prejudice before it can spread.

“Can you tell me about it?” May asks while swirling her coffee cup around with one hand.

Michelle doesn't understand, “Tell you about what?”

“About this magic thing. Anything. Everything. I don't want to feel this way so tell me all about it.”

Oh. She's giving her a chance to make her case. The surge of relief is practically tangible. “Well, it started about 9 months ago when Peter invited Ned and me over to visit a sorcerer that he met once while on patrol.”

The story is surprisingly long and she goes into as much detail as she possibly can remember. May is largely expressionless until the girl gets to the part where she saved Peter's life by teleporting them to the Avengers compound after his fight with Electro. Flickers of approval begin to show and they stay there after she describes the events of the attempted robbery at Delmar's. By the time she finishes, it has nearly been 45 minutes.

“Okay. Okay. I've got some thinking to do,” May says as the story finishes and she puts her head in her hands. She glances up to the clock, “Peter's running late. I'll text him”. A couple minutes later he arrives and dinner is served. For the duration of the meal, May's face is a strange mix of lost and thoughtful. No one says a word as they eat.

 

 

 

That night they try and figure out sleeping arrangements. They don't have a spare bed anymore so May allows the two of them to sleep in the same bed as long as they keep their door open. Her ruling embarrasses the hell out of Peter, but Michelle thinks it's hilarious. She's still a little shaken from the attack and doesn't want to sleep alone tonight so this works for her. It's not like it would be possible for Peter to do anything improper. She knows he would rather throw himself in front of every bus in the city than hurt her.

That night before they go to sleep, Peter confesses something to her. “I heard part of what your conversation with May. I had forgotten something and came back, but I heard you two talking and figured I probably shouldn't interrupt. I had no idea Aunt May felt that way.”

Michelle isn't entirely surprised that he heard some of it, but she is surprised that he admitted to it. “She's just looking out for you in the only way she can,” she replies while shrugging. Part of her wonders if she would feel the same way if she was in May's position. May is desperately trying to hold on to what she has left in an increasingly bizarre world while simultaneously still allowing her nephew to grow and do great things. It must be hard.

While lost in her thoughts about May, she hears Peter start to quietly snore and he unconsciously rolls over to hold her. She's not sure if it's a protective thing or affectionate thing, but she certainly can't deny that it's comfortable. Plus he's warm as hell which is nice for a winter night. Laughing softly to herself, she snuggles in a little closer and goes to sleep.

 

 

 

Ned drops by with his laptop on Saturday. He shows them some nearby security camera feeds to see if Michelle could identify anyone, but all she really saw was the cloak and no one was wearing anything like that in the footage.

“He was a sorcerer Ned. He probably teleported into my apartment or something and waited for me,” Michelle explains.

“I just wish there was something I could do to help, MJ. We have no idea who this guy is, what he looks like, where he came from, or where he might be. He could literally be anywhere,” Ned says and boy does that put things in perspective. With the three of them there they try and have a little fun with TV or a movie, but no one has their heart in it with the threat hanging over her head. It's a depressing sight in general.

 

 

 

On Sunday morning they get a message from Strange that he has a lead and to meet up with him. As she thought, Michelle is feeling a lot better now. There's still some minor aches, but it's ignorable. She teleports Peter and herself out to the Sanctum to see what's going on.

“Over the past month there have been seven sorcerers that were killed. At this time I'm not sure of the exact motivation. One of the recent killings that we've tracked down was someone I knew by the name of Jonathan Pangborn. He was found dead in his workplace at a local factory. The factory is closed today so we should be able to get in and find what we need without much hassle,” Strange briefs the two of them.

“Well, I'm always down for a little casual trespassing,” Peter jokes. “How are we supposed to find anything though?”

Strange creates a portal that leads directly to the murder scene. Various workbenches are scattered around and tons of tools are everywhere. Michelle assumes he must have been here already for him to know this location

As the three of them step though, Strange elaborates, “I had come here yesterday, but was unable to find anything useful. After some research, I believe that this spell may help us however.” Strange motions his hands to open the Eye of Agamotto he wears and the bright green core glows brightly. A few moments later a transparent projection appears in the air before them. A man is working at one of the tables who she assumes must be Pangborn.

“This is a projection of the past. We should be able to see what happened,” the older man says.

Nothing interesting is going on so Peter and Michelle circle around to get a better look. “You could make a killing as a private investigator,” Peter idly comments.

After a few minutes, the man in the black robe appears. His hood is pulled a little further back and he's more visible.

“Mordo,” Strange breathes out.

Peter rapidly looks between the projection and Michelle, “Is this the guy?” Michelle nods her head to confirm.

_(Pangborn notices the presence behind him and turns around, “Can I help you?”_

“ _They carried you into Kamar-Taj on a stretcher. Look at you now, Pangborn,” the cloaked man says._

“ _Mordo. So what can I do for you man?”_

“ _I've been away for many months now and I've had a revelation,” Mordo says as he takes his hood off. “The true purpose of a sorcerer is to twist things out of their proper shape. Stealing power. Perverting nature. Like you.”_

_While he's not outright threatening him, Pangborn senses the implication and grabs a crowbar. “I've stolen nothing. This is my power. Mine.”_

“ _Power has a purpose,” is Mordo's reply and he lunges to hit Pangborn on the side._

_The impact seems to send him falling to the floor and unable to move somehow. He can't stand for some reason. “Why are you doing this?”_

“ _Because I see at long last what's wrong with the world. Too many sorcerers.” Mordo then pulls back to deliver the killing blow, but Strange ends the projection before they have to see it.)_

Great. Just great. “Okay. So there's an insane guy who wants to kill sorcerers roaming around and he wants me dead. My parents are coming back home tomorrow! What am I supposed to do? How do you even know this guy?” Michelle asks Strange.

“Mordo is a former Master of the Mystic Arts. He used to be my mentor. There was an incident where the Dark Dimension almost took over the world and in order to stop it we had to resort to some extreme measures that he did not approve of so he left,” he explains, but it's apparent that he's very troubled by what he just watched.

Peter meanwhile isn't really paying attention. He seems lost in thought and stares at the spot where the attack happened. “Can you show the attack again? I thought I saw something.” Strange complies and right when it gets to the point where Mordo lunges, Peter says, “Okay stop. Here, look at where he hits the guy. There's this orange stuff coming out of him like he's sucking magic out or something.”

Michelle and Strange lean over to take a look and yeah, that's exactly what it looks like. “That's... not possible,” Strange says, confused. Michelle didn't know that it was possible to be this stressed out. Now he's possibly more powerful than expected because he's taking other people's magic too?

Peter wants to get to the heart of the matter, “So how do we find this guy so that we can stop him?”

“I've been trying to locate him through tracking spells ever since I first suspected, but he's blocking them. He's somewhere in the city, but I cannot do much better than that right now,” answers Strange.

“I've got some friends that could probably help find him through security camera footage now that we know what he looks like. You guys make portals and stuff to get around, but maybe I could get a rough idea of where he's staying at night,” the boy suggests.

They're talking about her, but only to each other. It's as if she's not even in the room. She knows it's because they're trying to protect her and keep her out of harm's way, but it almost feels belittling. The solution here is obvious, but it's apparent no one wants to say it out loud.

“Or you could use me as bait.”

Michelle looks around to try and figure out who said that only to realize it came out of her own mouth. The surprised look on Peter's face must match her own, but Strange has an air of satisfaction as if he was waiting for this.

_What am I doing? I don't want to save the world from extra-dimensional creatures, but I'm willing to put myself up against an extremely powerful sorcerer? Oh Michelle, you need to stop kidding yourself._

“MJ, I-” Peter tries to say before he's cut off.

“I think,” Michelle says as the words she needs to voice to convince herself start falling into place, “that I need to stop pretending that I can stand by and not do anything. These people that he's attacking. I know these people and some of them are my friends. I can't just do nothing.”

_(Strange leans forward towards her. “Why exactly are you here?”)_

_(Wong nods, "I assumed as much. What brought you here? Why learn all this?")_

_I was looking for meaning in my life. I was looking for a way out of that aimless, uncertain future. I even think that deep down, I was looking for a way to make a difference._

It's quiet for a long moment and Peter's face is a complicated mess of emotions. There's too many and he's cycling through them too quickly to identify properly so Michelle looks over to Strange and asks, “Can you leave us alone for a few minutes?” He nods and leaves without a word to another room in the Sanctum.

_I can't imagine my life anymore without the Mystic Arts. This is who I am. Who I'm meant to be. It's probably time I start acting like it._

“We both knew something like this was going to happen eventually. I just didn't want to admit it to myself,” Michelle says to Peter with a resigned voice.

“I know,” Peter agrees, “It's just, if I had a choice I would take you and hide you away in the deepest and safest bunker in the world, but you would hate me for it. I'm trying to come to terms with that.”

She reaches over and takes his hand in her own. “We'll make it through this.”

“Yeah. I'm definitely going to kick this guy's ass though.”

 

 

 

The plan they throw together is admittedly pretty terrible due to lack of time to prepare, but Michelle insisted they had to do it tonight. If Mordo is still at large by the time her parents return, then she won't be able to go home for fear of putting them in danger. That's something that would be impossible to explain.

After Michelle somehow gets Mordo's attention and draws him out, Strange would focus on moving them to the Mirror Dimension to keep anyone from seeing and to avoid collateral damage while Peter would use his webs to keep the man from escaping. One of the issues is that Michelle doesn't really know how to lure him out so she makes herself as obvious as possible by getting her Apprentice rank crimson robes and putting them on.

It's getting to be pretty late and the sun has gone down as she wanders around the city randomly. Occasionally she can see Peter in the Spider-Man suit tracking her from the rooftops. It's still a relatively populated area so she starts heading off into more isolated locations and that's what does the trick. Suddenly a portal appears in front of her and the man she now knows to be Mordo steps through as she backs away. Faintly she registers a second portal opening for Strange and she can hear Peter calling out to her, but Mordo pulls a small cube out of his pocket and everything vanishes.

She's no longer in the city, but rather in an endless field of grass – eternally flat in all directions. Mordo stands a fair distance away from her. She immediately tries to create a portal to escape wherever she is, but nothing happens.

“I've sealed this place off. You cannot leave and Strange cannot help you here,” Mordo says. He shows off the cube which now glowing before putting it away, “I've brought us to a pocket dimension. You cannot escape.”

Swallowing down her fear, Michelle tries to stall. There's no way she can fight him alone. “Why are you doing this?”

“It will not matter to you in a few moments,” is all he says in reply.

“But I don't even know you! You don't know me! What is all this about?” Michelle pleads with him in an attempt to buy time. Her words have no effect and Mordo begins stepping towards her. In that moment, the blue sky briefly pulses a faint orange color.

The man stops and glances up to the sky. His face is suddenly starting to sweat as if he's going through a hard workout. “It seems that Strange is more persistent than I expected,” he says while breathing hard.

She puts together the pieces to understand what's going on. Mordo is holding the seal on the dimension himself with his own power, but it's tiring him. Strange must be trying to break in while the man in front of her resists it. All she needs to do is wait, but her hope is quickly dashed when Mordo snaps out of his distraction and begins stepping toward her again.

Michelle decides to take the initiative and quickly casts a spell to liquefy the ground that Mordo is standing on. Surprised, he loses his footing and he drops knee-deep into mud. Immediately, she reverts the action and transforms it back before he can climb out. The man's legs are now stuck in solid ground. Trying to press her advantage before he can get out, Michelle charges him while creating a whip and swings it out to him the moment she gets in range. Mordo simply grabs the whip out of the air with one hand and ignores the hit with a flinch. Holding on his end of her whip, he swings it and tosses Michelle off to the side then takes the opportunity to free himself. The girl bounces on the ground a couple times before she stops.

_Get up, Michelle. Get up!_

He's too strong for a frontal attack so she takes a defensive approach. Climbing to her feet, she sees that Mordo has gotten loose and is already running at her with his segmented staff out. Terrified from the memory of the last time she was hit by it, she forms a pair of shields for each hand and attempts to block. As the man approaches though he leaps to the side. Michelle tries to rotate with him, but he then jumps a second time in the air with a sudden change of direction as if he was pushing off of an invisible wall. With the girl unable to keep up with his speed, Mordo takes a swing at her unguarded back and connects. Screaming in agony, she's again sent tumbling through the air and her back feels like it's on fire from pain.

_Get up! If you don't stand you're going to die!_

The man casts a spell she can't identify and stomps his foot on the ground as hard as he can. From where he is, a massive crack forms in the earth and races out to Michelle's position. As it gets there, the entire world begins to split in two as the crack widens and leaves an enormous chasm in its wake. There is no bottom. Breathless at the sheer power on display, she rolls her fallen body off of the growing cracks and tries to scramble to her feet to run away. She isn't fast enough however and the chasm catches up to her, seemingly pulling her in. Her arms flail for something to hold on to, but can't find a grip before it's too late and she starts to fall. Michelle conjures a whip desperately and lashes it out to the cliff edge. It sticks. Mentally commanding her improvised rope to shorten, she pulls herself to the ledge and climbs up. On the other side of the abyss is Mordo, panting from exertion. The sky flickers orange again.

_Focus Michelle. Focus. You can have your panic attack when this is all over. He can't keep this up. He's straining himself to keep Strange out and that last spell must have taken a lot of out him. Just stall as long as you can._

The absurdity hits her that all she has done is flail around in an attempt to save herself. She hasn't even hit him yet. Michelle has never been so thankful in her life to have done all that sparring practice in Kamar-Taj and with Strange. There's no way she could have done anything like this otherwise. For a long time Mordo does nothing and for once he almost seems indecisive. She thinks he might be about to give up and escape, but instead he starts running on the air across the newly formed canyon towards her.

Preparing for the incoming attack, Michelle manifests another shield, but can only manage to form one on her left arm. She's getting too tapped out so she takes the sling ring off her left hand and and moves it to her right. Bracing herself, Michelle blocks the staff swing from the charging Mordo. This time the shield only cracks instead of breaking entirely and she manages to keep her footing. The man meanwhile has seemed to overcommit to the attack and left himself open. She takes the opportunity and slugs him in the face with her right arm using the sling ring as improvised brass knuckles.

Mordo staggers back from the hit, but the moment she connected the whole sky flashed a deep orange as if the world was on fire. Angrily, he pulls back and readies another strike.

“MJ!”

A strand of webbing appears and sticks to the back of Mordo's right hand before he can attack with it. Looking behind him, Michelle now sees a portal where Peter and Strange have come through. Strange is on his hands and knees gasping for air and she can only assume it's from the exertion of forcing their way in. With his left hand, Mordo uses some brief hand motions to form a magical conjured sword like the one she had seen Strange using. He spins around and uses it to cut the web, then moves towards Peter.

Barely able to stand, Michelle forms another whip and strikes it out towards Mordo's legs. For the first time it manages to hold due to his weakened state. Pulling, she manages to sweep out his leg just like he had done to her back at her apartment. She falls over as well and can't muster the energy to stand. This opening was all that they needed though. As Mordo fell to the ground, Peter was able to get him tied up in webs before he could react and defend himself. He then goes over and applies even more webbing just in case.

Finally, it hits her that the fight is over and that she won. “Holy shit, I'm still alive,” Michelle says in amazement. All she can do is stare down at her hands in awe. Her body feels like it must be scraped up all over with minor cuts and she'll probably be covered in bruises tomorrow, but she just fought in an incredibly dangerous battle to protect people she cares about from a powerful mass murderer.

And she came out on top.

 

 

 

With Mordo tied down, Strange took over most of the detainment and questioning when he eventually recovered since he seems to be the only one who really knows the full story behind the guy's motivations. Peter and Michelle are sitting a short distance away in the grass with her leaning back against his chest as he fusses over her and makes sure she's okay. She's absolutely exhausted and beat.

“I told you Strange! The bill will come due. Too many sorcerers are breaking the natural order of things! We must stop them to protect our reality!” Mordo screams out to Strange as he struggles in his bindings.

Strange just looks down to the other man in confusion, “You're insane. What happened to you?”

“And I should have never let you in to Kamar-Taj. You are worst one of them all,” Mordo shuffles his right arm and manages to get it free from Strange's spell. Everyone sees this and quickly goes to re-bind him, but in that one moment he pulls a hidden dagger from his sash and stabs himself in the heart.

Time freezes as they try and register what just happened. Strange is completely dumbfounded that the man he worked with to defend the world from the Dark Dimension would change so radically. “Why?” he asks.

“If I cannot protect our world from the other sorcerers then I do not want to be around to see the result.” Mordo says as he takes in his last breath. Michelle looks away. While she may have played a role in capturing him, she doesn't understand the full tale. That's fine though, she thinks as she looks over to Strange. It's not her story after all.

 

 

 

Eventually, Strange collects himself and they begin to head back home. He creates a portal as Peter helps Michelle up to her feet.

“Mr. Parker, could you do me the favor of carrying Mordo back to the Sanctum for me? I'll figure out what to do with his remains,” Strange asks Peter.

He'd rather stay and help his girlfriend get back home, but he figures it'll only take a moment with the portals. “Uh, ok. Not a big fan of dead bodies though.”

“I'm sure you'll manage.”

Peter heads over to Mordo's body and begins to pick it up, but runs in to unexpected trouble. The guy's feet are practically stuck to the ground.

“Hey, um. Was this guy always so heavy? I can't pick him up. It's like his shoes are made of stone or something,” Peter calls out to Strange before he can head through the portal. Strange turns around to take a look before he realized what was going on.

“Hmm. Michelle, what do you remember that I told you about relics? Those boots are one. They allowed him to jump and stand on the air briefly.” he asks.

Huh. She had been wondering how that worked. The girl tries to review everything she knows about them, “You said that they're sentient.”

“Correct.”

Michelle then takes it to the logical conclusion, “You're saying that Peter can't pick up this guy because his boots don't want to go?”

“Exactly,” while he's content that Michelle was able to figure out the problem, Strange is also rather annoyed, “We'll need to take the boots off and I'll come back for them later when I find a way to transport them,”

Peter meanwhile thinks it's pretty nuts, “You mean this guy's boots are like Thor's hammer and that only the worthy can pick them up? Those are some hardcore boots.”

A little amused by the comparison, Strange nods. “Fairly similar. The main difference is that according to legends, the Mjölnir has specific criteria that anyone could hypothetically meet. Magical relics don't have criteria and only work with people they like or want to work with.”

When he finishes getting Mordo's boots off, Peter tries picking them up for fun. His super strength allows him to get them off the ground, but not by a lot. Michelle thinks it looks hilarious to see something that normally weighs so little cause him trouble. Curious as to how it feels, she heads over to try it herself. They lift off the ground completely weightlessly. The three of them stare at the boots in surprise.

Shockingly, it's Peter who speaks up first, “So they think that MJ is worthy? That's so cool!”

“No offense, but taking shoes from a dead guy is a little weird,” Michelle comments in objection.

Strange counters with his own point, “And I'm not the first person to wear the Cloak of Levitation. Others before me used it that are likely long deceased.”

That's... a fair argument that she can't think of a counter to. Looting a body for boots seems incredibly morbid, but they do look pretty cool. “What are they called?”

“The Vaulting Boots of Valtorr.”

She flips them around to inspect them. “Neat.”

 

 

 

The next day her parents return home. Considering how worried she was about returning home while Mordo was still out trying to kill her, it seems odd how safe and unaware her parents are here. They have no idea that she nearly died in this building just a few days ago. Her mother gives her some worried glances at the bruises on her face and arms so she tries to play it off as a bad fall down the stairs in the apartment building. It's not exactly a lie.

The scene is peaceful. Her parents are in a good mood since it's about to be Christmas and they'll both be in town for a couple weeks. This must be how it feels for people like Strange to do the things they do. It's not noticed by the general population like how things the Avengers do are, but it makes a difference and protects them. This sight makes it all worthwhile, Michelle thinks.

_Hey Mom and Dad, I think I finally know what I want to do with my life. One day, when I'm stronger, I want to save the world._

 

 

 

Now that she has some time, Michelle gets back to her Christmas project for Peter. Her last session of working on the enchantment ends up being on the night of Christmas Eve. She would have done it sooner, but with her parents home she had to wait for them to go to sleep. As with the previous times, the power requirement is immense and needs her to create several complicated glyphs that she doesn't understand. When the spell finally finishes a while later, the bracelet begins to glow and suddenly it shatters into several pieces scattered around her bedroom.

_No, no, no, no, no, please no._

Michelle wants to hit herself for her own idiocy. She really should have known better than to try and cast a spell she doesn't fully understand. It's too late to get a replacement bracelet since all the stores are closed now so she starts picking up the various pieces she can find. The girl finds seven of them and collects them on her desk. After trying to match which parts go together, she casts a small transmutation spell to attempt to meld them back to normal. It works, but only technically. The entire Spider-Man logo is now blurred out and all around the bracelet are lines where the cracks were.

It's ruined.

Michelle puts her head in her hands as she tries to think of what to do. She's going to look like a total idiot when she meets up with Peter and Ned tomorrow to pass around some presents. The only idea she has is to preemptively lower his expectations. It's 11:00 PM now so he's probably still awake. Getting out her phone, she texts Peter.

_MJ: I just accidentally broke your present. I tried putting it back together but it's ruined._

God, she feels pathetic. Thankfully Ned's present is already taken care of so her meetup with her friends won't be a total loss, but still. Michelle starts to think about going to sleep and hoping she'll forget about the whole thing when her phone interrupts her with a chime.

_Peter: can I come over?_

_MJ: knock on my window and i'll come outside. my parents are asleep._

The best thing she can do is to just give it to him now while they're alone so she starts working out what to say to him, but before she makes any headway 20 minutes have already passed and there's a knock on the window. Michelle texts him a quick message that she'll meet him outside and grabs the bracelet before leaving.

 

 

 

It's snowing. Not bad enough for it to stick to the roads, but it's enough that there will probably be some accumulation on the sidewalks tomorrow. Right outside the door to the building she sees Peter there waiting for her. Practically all of his nervous habits are on full blast which sends her tons of red flags.

“It's nice that you're trying to make me feel better by letting me give this to you alone, but it's not going to work,” Michelle says as she casually drops the bracelet into his hands. The girl then looks away, finding literally anything else to be more interesting.

She can hear him fiddling with it for a moment before she hears, “Wait, is that a Spider-Man logo? Oh my god this is so cool!” He continues freaking out about it for a moment, but she's already tuned him out and not listening. She simply doesn't believe him. She's pulled back to reality when she feels him grab hold of her hand. “Really, MJ. This is great,” he says as he draws close and kisses her. He's got a big and bright smile on his face and he's already put the gift on so maybe it's not as bad as she thought. All Michelle can do is shrug.

Peter seems disheartened by her actions and she feels guilty, but he shakes it off. “I actually wanted to come over here to give you mine,” he says as he reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a small wooden box the size of the palm of his hand and hands it to her.

Inside is a pendant. The chain is a simple gold, but the pendant itself is in the shape of the symbol for the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Just like the large decorative window on the upper floor of the Sanctum, it has a circular frame with two pairs of criss-crossing circular gold lines with an emerald cradled in the center. It looks almost exactly like a small imitation of the Eye of Agamotto that Strange wears around.

_Oh my god._

Michelle is scared to ask how much it cost to have custom work like this done. She doesn't have a clue where he even got the money from since she was under the impression that Peter and May didn't have a whole lot of spare cash to go around. A huge wave of insecurity washes up and she physically has to take a step back from Peter. She can't handle this right now. Peter gave her this and all she gave him was essentially a pile of scrap metal that she glued together after breaking it. Her old reclusive instincts scream at her to run and hide, but she knows that if she does it will likely do irreparable harm to their relationship. So she stands there indecisively and unknowing of what to do or say.

“MJ?” Peter has an extremely nervous smile on his face. He's clearly scared of her reaction.

She just doesn't get it. Michelle never really has to be honest. Ever since he had first asked her out on a date she's always wondered what he saw in her. The idea of actually asking him terrifies her though. He might think she's just fishing for compliments to boost her ego, but it would be even worse if he didn't have an answer. Here though, out in the snow with the pendant in her hands, she can't think of anything else to say. “Why me? What did I do?” _What did I do to deserve you?_

“Have I ever told you how much you inspire me?”

The girl feels poleaxed by the question. She knows what each word independently means, but put together in a sentence it forms something she doesn't understand. “What?”

Peter runs a hand through his hair, “Sometimes when people talk about Spider-Man for doing something good, I end up feeling like a fraud. All the credit should be going to that weird radioactive spider and not me. Peter Parker is just some nerdy loser whose vision was so bad that he was practically blind and was allergic to everything on the planet. Then one day I wake up and all my health problems are magically gone and my vision is better than I could have ever dreamed of.”

“Peter...” Michelle says before trailing off.

“After I got the hang of my new strength and stopped freaking out I started feeling like I had won the lottery at how much easier things were in my life. My prescription bills dropped a lot which I know Ben and May were happy about even if they never wanted to admit it. Then Ben died and I realized how selfish I was being. So I started out with the Spider-Man thing as a way to try and repay my debt to the universe I suppose and hopefully I could make up for my mistakes with Uncle Ben. The thing is though that I never earned this power. It's all the spider and not me. If you take away the spider, I'm still just that loser nobody. That's why I looked up to Mr. Stark so much. He's not jacked up on super drugs like Captain America or an alien god like Thor. He's just a guy. A really, really smart guy. And when you're some kid whose only strength is an interest in science and tech, that can mean a lot.”

This is probably the most passionate she's seen Peter be about something in a long time so Michelle just remains silent and let him keep talking.

Peter flashes another nervous grin at her, “Don't take this the wrong way, but when I look at you I think a lot about how I would look up to Mr. Stark. I see a girl who is so smart that I'm just like, wow.”

She has to interject, “Peter, we both know you're way better than me at Chemistry and Physics. You even invented your web fluid out of chemicals you stole from school to use in an improvised lab. There's a reason you are the primary science specialist on the decathlon team.”

He waves her off, “Yeah, but you're better at literally everything else. Anyway, so after everything with Liz, I start realizing that this girl I see is probably the most brilliant person my age I've ever met and instantly I've got a crush on her. Like, I'm in deep. I don't do or say anything though because Peter Parker is still just a loser nobody and she probably doesn't like me much for bailing out on the most important decathlon meet of the year.”

That's not entirely wrong. Up until she started putting together the puzzle that Peter Parker might be Spider-Man she was actually rather annoyed with him about his random absences. The realization puts an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

“But then this girl I've got a crush on starts learning magic. Actual, honest to god magic. As soon as I really understand it, I instantly ask her out because she has no idea just how far she's skyrocketing out of my league and I don't want her thinking that I only care about her because she's a sorceress. Here's the thing though. I'm still in this hole and trying to repay my debt, but you, you're blazing ahead in your own trail. This magic thing - that's all you. That's all Michelle Jones. There's no radioactive spider or other weird stuff. That's why I was comparing you to Mr. Stark. It's all you and nothing else. Every last bit of it is what you've earned. So when I take away my spider thing, I'm just this loser nobody who is looking at you and being completely blown away. All I see is a beautiful and brilliant girl that I wish I could be half as awesome as,” Peter finally finishes with a small blush.

God. How do you even reply to something like that? It's clear that both of them have some deep insecurity issues, but she's not remotely qualified to help with it. She gets what he's trying to say though and it mirrors a lot of her thoughts from back when he first asked her out about how he was out of her league.

“Well, if I'm so awesome then my opinion has to count for something right?” Michelle asks. Peter dumbly nods. “Then you can take it from me that Peter Parker is pretty awesome too. I'm still cooler though,” she tells him. Somewhere in her heart she thinks she's starting to feel emotions that she's not ready to acknowledge. Not yet, but maybe someday soon.

Peter chuckles softly, “That was never in doubt, MJ.”

Michelle then realizes that she's still holding his gift to her and puts it on. “Thank you. I mean it,” she says as and she leans over to kiss him.

A minute later an alarm goes off in his pocket and Peter pulls out his phone. After a quick glance he turns it around to show her with a bright smile. It's midnight. “Merry Christmas, MJ.”

“Merry Christmas.”

 

 

 

Epilogue:

This is pretty far up there in terms of weirdest conversations ever. The problem is that Michelle can't afford for her new Vaulting Boots of Valtorr to accidentally spill the secret of her magical training to her parents. It's pretty unlikely since the boots can't talk, but her parents might see them at some point or try and move them around to clean the apartment. So here Michelle is – in her apartment, talking to her boots and trying to convince them to lay off on refusing to be picked up by anyone else.

“I can't have you weighing 20 tons to my parents. They don't know about any of this.”

Peter tries to pick up the boots. They refuse to budge.

“You don't need to do the whole jumping thing with anyone else. Just allow a few people to move you around.”

Peter tries again. They're stuck to the ground.

“Please? That's my boyfriend trying to pick you up now. You can trust him.”

Peter tries again, but nothing happens. He actually feels a little insulted.

“What if I promise to give you a full cleaning this weekend?”

This time they are easily lifted. Ned falls out of his chair in laughter.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This where I start getting nervous about if I'm making MJ too powerful. That's part of why I wanted to skip so much time so as to make it plausible. Technically in the last fight she didn't really do all that much. The real fight was a battle of wills between Mordo and Strange to keep the dimension sealed/force it open. That fight is what drained him enough for MJ to actually do anything at all otherwise she wouldn't stand a whisper of a chance.
> 
> Hopefully there aren't many typos or editing issues. I just finished this moments ago and decided to go ahead and post it because I was feeling impatient.
> 
> Lastly, I'm probably going to take a break from this for a bit. Next we're hitting up on Infinity War and I might have to adjust a few things depending on what happens in Endgame so I'm waiting until the movie releases before doing anything. I have a pretty good idea of where I want this to go though. There is a pretty good chance that there will be a part 5 and that's where the series will end.


End file.
